One-year stability of prospective memory symptoms and performance in aging and HIV disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction: HIV disease and aging can both affect prospective memory (PM), which describes the complex process of executing delayed intentions and plays an essential role in everyday functioning. The current study investigated the course of PM symptoms and performance over approximately one year in younger and older persons with and without HIV disease. Method: Participants included 77 older (>50 years) and 35 younger (<40 years) HIV+ individuals and 44 older and 27 younger seronegative adults. Participants completed the Memory for Intentions Test to measure PM in the laboratory, the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire to measure PM symptoms in daily life, and several clinical measures of executive functions and retrospective memory as a part of a comprehensive neurocognitive evaluation at baseline and at 14-month follow-up. Results: Findings showed additive, independent main effects of HIV and aging on time- and event-based PM performance in the laboratory, but no change in PM over time. There were no interactions between time and HIV or age groups. Parallel findings were observed for clinical measures of retrospective memory and executive functions. Older HIV+ adults endorsed the greatest frequency of PM symptoms, but there was no change in PM symptom severity over time and no interactions between time and HIV or age groups. There were no effects of HIV or aging on naturalistic PM performance longitudinally. Conclusion: Overall these findings suggest that PM symptoms and performance in the laboratory are stably impaired over the course of a year in the setting of aging and HIV disease.

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS dementia complex
• episodic memory
• prospective memory
• everyday memory
• memory for intentions

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Marizela Verduzco for study coordination, Dr. Scott Letendre for overseeing the neuromedical aspects of the parent project, Dr. J. Hampton Atkinson and Jennifer Marquie Beck for participant recruitment, and Donald R. Franklin and Stephanie Corkran for data processing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants R01-MH073419 and P30-MH62512 from the National Institutes of Health. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, nor the United States Government.